Roadblocks, setbacks, adversity, and similar terms are used a lot in life to label anything that prevents us from getting where we ultimately want to be. How we handle that adversity has a tendency to define us. Oftentimes people will be known as ‘strong willed’ or ‘focused’ because they don’t let things stand in their way.

Is that the type of person you are?

Fitness should be looked at as a journey instead of a quick fix. While many of us start down the path because of a simple reason such as wanting to lose excess weight, shaping up for a wedding, or even just getting a hot body for summer; the fact is we all started. Most people, once they start, realize the benefits of working out and like to continue pursuing fitness as part of their routine. You look better, feel better, and can do more when you have a higher level of fitness.

But it is very true that a good 20% of getting in and staying in shape is the mental game.

Life Constantly Changes

Good intentions can only take a person so far in life. Things always have an always will happen. Common curveballs include:

Any and all of these can and will happen in your life. It is actually rather ridiculous to assume that things will remain exactly the same over any long period because they never due. Yet people get stuck in that mindset and when something throws them off their fitness plan, causing them to miss too many days, they simply let it go and stop working out. Why do you think so many gyms have upfront fees? They expect you to quit after a few months because most people do.

That is the wrong way to deal with adversity.

Winning the Mental Game

The biggest thing you need to understand about fitness or working out and you is that you are the only person it really matters to. Getting six-pack abs might be nice to attract more looks from women, but you are the one who cares about that. The same goes for losing weight, become faster at running a 10k, or any other goals you set for yourself. If you don’t reach those goals the person who is let down is you.

That mentality is what creates the problem.

People get disappointed when they let themselves down and that breeds depression or even indifference to trying harder. The easiest way to avoid this pitfall is to stop looking at your fitness goal over such a small timeframe.

Time marches on no matter what you do. You can’t stop it or slow it down. By the same token life marches on and you can’t always control it. So why beat yourself up with something disrupts your plan? If you are flexible about when you reach your goals then you won’t suffer the disappointment if they don’t happen at a certain point.

That is not to say you shouldn’t set goals (because you should), you just have to be reasonable about them occurring in such a short time.

We Always Try to Do Too Much

It is human nature to bite off more than we can chew. We want to believe we can achieve so much in life. Heck, even in our daily to-do we often have way too much stuff that can’t possibly be completed without breaking the laws of nature. So the key is to curb your goals to be more realistic while not curbing your enthusiasm and drive to get them completed.

Never let a setback stop you from trying. Never let adversity extinguish your desire to complete your goal. If it is something you want then it doesn’t matter if it takes one week or one month to complete. What matters is that you never give up and eventually climb the mountain and conquer that goal. You have already taken the first step just by reading this article. So keep putting one foot in front of the other and you will get there.